Residents who went to the Columbia City Council meeting Monday night to protest a rezoning request for land off Green Meadows Road got a surprise when the developer’s lawyer withdrew the request instead.

In front of a packed, tense crowd, Dan Simon, a lawyer representing developer Don Stohldrier, withdrew a request that would have put a mix of homes and townhouses on about 16 acres. Simon said his advice to develop townhouses in the area had been in error.

“They’ve won. They wore me out,” Simon said of the dispute with neighbors that started early this summer. “They’ve worn Mr. Stohldrier out.”

Stohldrier’s public-relations spokesman Mark Farnen said the developer will now plan for single-family homes on the land. Stohldrier was not present at the meeting.

Stohldrier’s old plan called for the council to rezone the land to allow for a development that would have cascaded from single-family homes to villas to townhouses.

Now, it appears it will stay single-family residential.

Many of the neighbors who showed up at the Monday meeting were there to make sure that happened.

“We are very pleased with that outcome,” said Nita Brooks, president of the Trail Ridge/Greenbriar Neighborhood Association. “We expect that in the spring they will start to work on the residential developments.”

George Boyle, a resident of the Greenbriar area who was concerned about potential crime in a changed neighborhood, was also pleased but expressed concern about the future.

“We may have to be back again,” Boyle said.

Probably, though, he won’t have to.

Farnen said the revised plan will develop single-family homes on 13.75 acres of the tract and to leave 2.51 acres up for future consideration. After the plan goes before the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, Farnen expects it to be approved by the City Council sometime in mid-November.